This
astonishing film, produced at the height of the Civil Rights movement,
has become more relevant today than when it was first made in 1965 as a
subproduct of the cold war and the "McCarthy-era". Instead of merely
telling the story of the 1960s riots, the film explores the
circumstances preceding those riots and exposes a covert agenda which
profits from the conflict of one group against another.

"Anarchy
U.S.A." is a documentary made about the civil rights movement made by
the infamous John Birch Society at the height of the turmoil. If you're
familiar with them, you may already know what to expect. Basically they
claim that the Civil Rights movement is a mass communist plot to
infiltrate American society. They draw a lot of comparisons between it
and Cuba. Already, even the most conservative will probably be unable to
take this seriously, and it eventually becomes rather funny because of
how offensively wrong headed it is. However, it goes on for far too long
and becomes rather monotonous and sleep inducing after a while. Those
looking to see what some other people thought of the movement though
will find this fascinating on a historical level. (4/10)

Anarchy U.S.A. is a 1966 documentary produced by the John Birch
Society that claims that the then active U.S. Civil Rights Movement was
actually part of a Communist conspiracy to both turn the U.S. Communist
and also form the creation of a separate “Negro Soviet Republic” in
Black Belt of the South (a term which the film claims was created by
Communists). The film then connects the U.S. Civil Rights Movement to
Communist Revolutions in Algeria, Cuba, and China and claims that the
same strategies used to usher in Communism in those places are being
used in the U.S. as well, ergo, it’s all a conspiracy. And that’s about
it for the plot. For those who don’t know though, the John Birch Society
is an anti-Communist conspiracy theory organization that hit its peak
in influence in the early 1960’s until William Buckley began to see them
as an embarrassment and ran them out of the larger conservative
movement. You see while it was fairly common for conservative
organizations back then to call Martin Luther King, Lyndon Johnson, and
John F. Kennedy Communists, the JBS took it a step farther by also
accusing Eisenhower of being a Communist. So yeah, that’s what we’re
dealing with here. Fun fact though, the founder of the JBS, Robert Welch
made his fortune in candy where he invented both the Sugar Daddy and
Milk Duds.

Anarchy U.S.A. is a 1966 documentary produced by the John Birch
Society that claims that the then active U.S. Civil Rights Movement was
actually part of a Communist conspiracy to both turn the U.S. Communist
and also form the creation of a separate “Negro Soviet Republic” in
Black Belt of the South (a term which the film claims was created by
Communists). The film then connects the U.S. Civil Rights Movement to
Communist Revolutions in Algeria, Cuba, and China and claims that the
same strategies used to usher in Communism in those places are being
used in the U.S. as well, ergo, it’s all a conspiracy. And that’s about
it for the plot. For those who don’t know though, the John Birch Society
is an anti-Communist conspiracy theory organization that hit its peak
in influence in the early 1960’s until William Buckley began to see them
as an embarrassment and ran them out of the larger conservative
movement. You see while it was fairly common for conservative
organizations back then to call Martin Luther King, Lyndon Johnson, and
John F. Kennedy Communists, the JBS took it a step farther by also
accusing Eisenhower of being a Communist. So yeah, that’s what we’re
dealing with here. Fun fact though, the founder of the JBS, Robert Welch
made his fortune in candy where he invented both the Sugar Daddy and
Milk Duds.